Genesis 22; Psalm 46; Hebrews 11:13.
1884 129 We cannot meditate upon Old Testament Scriptures without being struck with the faith of the Old Testament saints. It was no doubt that of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself when upon earth, for He is the only perfect exemplar of faith as of every other perfection. It will also be that of the godly Jewish remnant in the latter day under their last and bitter trials. It counts upon the faithfulness of God and pierces through all difficulties, discouragements, and natural impossibilities, right up to God Himself. We have a very striking example of it in Psalm 46 which may well put many of us to shame as it often does me.
"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble." A refuge is a place to flee to from impending and known danger. A sinner's fleeing for refuge to Christ implies a sense of imminent danger: He is everlasting security from impending judgment; He is the true city of refuge from the avenger of blood (Num. 35:13, etc.). He is also the strength of His people in their conscious weakness. He does not always deliver us out of our troubles, but sustains us in them, and carries us through them, which is far better, and enables us to say in our feeble measure, "Even so Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight" (Matt. 11:26). Mary and Martha could never have known the present sympathy and resurrection power of the Lord Jesus Christ if they had not experienced the death of their brother. It was when sickness, death, the grave, and corruption, had each done its worst and seemed to have robbed them for ever of their beloved one, that the Lord stepped in, and showed them Himself as they had never before known Him. The sisters had sought the Lord in their trouble, and such is always its effect where there is real faith. Blessings tend, because of what we are, to elate us; and we run off with them to enjoy them, and forget God. Trouble brings us to our knees. It is good when our blessings also have this effect. See the beautiful example of this in Gideon (Judges 7:15). He did not rush off elated to tell the hosts of Israel the cheering tidings he had heard, but first worshipped, ere returning to the host. God was a very present help to him in his trouble; and such was the effect. But the Psalmist goes on to say "Therefore will not we fear though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea" etc.
Only let us reflect for a moment what faith it was for a Jew, whose revealed hopes were connected with the earth to use such language as this! All that was properly a Jewish hope was humanly speaking gone if the earth were removed. What faith it was then that could enable a Jew thus to count upon the faithfulness of God to fulfil His promises, in the face of such a catastrophe! But faith always counts upon God. Again, what but implicit faith in the living God could enable the Psalmist to speak of a city and a river to make it glad if the earth were removed? The city here is not the heavenly Jerusalem but the earthly. It is the city which hath foundations (Heb. 11:10)* which the patriarchs waited for (see new translation), and is in contrast with the tabernacles which had none. The land was yet theirs only by promise, and they waited till God should give it them and settle them in it. In patience they possessed their souls, and did not forestall God by building a city for themselves. The heavenly country* they sought was a heavenly order and condition of things in Canaan with Jehovah in their midst: not a better country than that will then be, but a better than Mesopotamia from whence they came out. They waited for that and confessed in the meantime, that they were strangers and pilgrims on earth (in the land, as in verse 9).
[*I must demur to this interpretation of Heb. 11:10, 16, satisfied that heavenly glory is in view; but the general scope of what is taught is true and important. Ed.]
We must not explain away what is Jewish and earthly because of what is christian and heavenly. The city spoken of in the psalm before us is surely Jerusalem in Canaan, which is to be the centre of blessing and of government for the whole world, as it is written, "Out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And He shall judge, i.e., rule among the nations" etc. (Isaiah 2:3). If the saints of old were looking for heaven, death would have been a step in the direction of their hope, and there would have been nothing particularly remarkable in their dying in faith. But seeing that they looked for the fulfilment of God's promises concerning Palestine, it was stupendous faith for them to believe that, though they died out of it, God would give it them. But to return: — "God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved. God shall help her and that right early." This must be the earthly city. The heavenly one when established will need no help. It will be out of the reach of harm. Not so the earthly: even at the close of her millennial peace and blessing there will be the hosts of Gog and Magog gathered against her. But God shall help her and that right early: no long conflict, no long siege, no protracted slaughter, shall characterize her deliverance. Fire shall come down from heaven and consume them (Rev. 20:9).
How salutary the exhortation — "Be still and know that I am God." We are very prone to agitate and busy ourselves in times of trouble; but it avails nothing, it only betrays our want of faith and entangles and distracts us still more. The proper effect of trouble is patience, and of patience experience of God, etc. (Rom. 5:3-4). "I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth." This is emphatically an answer to the faith expressed in the Psalm, it is Jewish and earthly; but we can and do share with the faithful Jew and rejoice with him in the prospect and assurance of his blessing, although God has prepared some better thing for as.
Having already alluded to the brilliant faith of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Sarah, who counted upon God to give them the land of promise when dying out of it, I will close these few lines with reference to that of Abraham in Genesis 22
God had called upon him to offer up his only-begotten son in whom all the promises centred. We are familiar with the scene, but there are one or two features in it well worthy of continual notice.
First. The promptness of the patriarch, the absence of all hesitation. "And Abraham rose up early in the morning." "He staggered not" at the requirement of God through unbelief, any more than he had done at the promise of God (Rom. 4:20). His promptness was equal to his faith and the fruit of it. Again, he was not more prompt than he was steadfast. He had ample time in his three days' journey to have reasoned himself out of his purpose, and to have persuaded himself that there must have been some mistake, etc. But no, he had the living God before his soul, and could trust him to make good all He had spoken concerning Isaac, though he slew him. "Abide ye here with the ass; and 1 and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you." What implicit faith in God that raiseth the dead (see Heb. 11:17–19)! And when they had come to the place, and the altar and the wood had been deliberately arranged, he "bound Isaac his son and laid him upon the altar upon the wood" etc. etc.
In Abraham we see in type (as every christian knows) the Father offering up His Son, and now at this point we have the Son giving Himself. An obedient father had an obedient son; for, whatever others may think, I do not believe that the binding was to prevent resistance. To prevent involuntary struggling, it might have been and no doubt was, for that would naturally have occurred, when the knife was felt; but now Isaac was here an intelligent and willing victim. But every type is imperfect: for what created thing could set forth the excellency of the person or the work of the Lord Jesus Christ in perfectness? Hence the importance of our not interpreting Christ by the types, but the types by Christ, lest we should attach to Him the imperfections of the types. This has been done and teaching subversive of atonement and the personal glory of Christ has been based upon it, to the damage of many souls.* Isaac, beautiful a type as he was in the scene before us, was imperfect in three momentous particulars at least.
[*This occurred about 35 years ago; but no time wears out, nor does true charity cover, the guilt of such a sin, nor indeed any, so long as it is unrepented of. Such charity is not charity at all, but cruelty to others, even to the individual himself, and it dishonours the Lord Jesus. "We may all alas! err; but he who knows the truth, and accepts what he knows degrades Christ, is deliberately preferring ease and companionship to Him, though he may dignify it with the name of love. Every effort to recover is right; but a step in acquiescence is a step in disloyalty to Him whom none would dare to dishonour, if He had not come down in love."]
1st. He did not know till the very last what was coming upon him. The Lord Jesus Christ did. "Lo I come to do thy will, O God … by the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once" (Heb. 10:9). Oh what devotedness to His Father! what unspeakable love to us! It was more than a cruel and ignominious death that He suffered: — He bore the judgment of God due to us.
2nd. A way of escape was found for Isaac. There was none for the Lord!! "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt" (Matt. 26:39).
3rd. If Isaac had died, he would not have made atonement for one sin. There could have been no virtue in his death for he was only a man, and a sinner also. Cursed is the man that trusteth in man (Jer. 17:5); but of the Lord it is said (Psalm 2:12) Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him. He was God as well as man.
And now, my reader, does not such faith as we have been reviewing put us to shame? Well it may. Yet, if we have not the faith of Abraham or of David, we have the all-gracious all-faithful and Almighty God, the same yesterday and today and for ever. Let us look unto Jesus, the only perfect object and pattern of faith. Who could ever be tried as He was? Yet, when persecuted, crucified, and reviled, He patiently bore it all. Such contradiction of sinners He endured against Himself, i.e. to His own disadvantage and reproach. "If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross" (Matt. 27:40): so He was taunted, but He endured. Everlasting praise to His precious name. G. O.